Becoming human

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Summary

The first episode on this DVD, First Steps, tracks humans' earliest ancestors, examining the skull of Selam, a 3 million year old child. Making a cast of the skull, researchers begin to understand ...

The first episode on this DVD, First Steps, tracks humans' earliest ancestors, examining the skull of Selam, a 3 million year old child. Making a cast of the skull, researchers begin to understand the split of humans from other apes, examining in particular the evolution of bipedalism. The traditional idea of bipedalism leading to increased brain size is challenged; a far more complex connection between bipedalism and brain size stretching over millions of years and spanning many species is established. The second episode, Birth of Humanity, examines the case of the "Turkana Boy," a nearly complete skeleton of Homo erectus preserved in mud. The episode investigates the exodus of Homo erectus from Africa into the rest of the world as well as traits such as tool making that emerged in the earliest humans. The final episode, Last Human Standing, considers the question of how humans met and interacted with Neanderthals, whether the two interbred, and why humans survived and continued to evolve. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute study the Neanderthal genome, providing new evidence on what makes humans and Neanderthals so different.

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